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The Ultimate Guide to Remote Work [Infographic]

60 points by nuriaion 9y ago

b0rsuk 9y ago
What the article doesn't mention is remote workers are less often promoted. It's psychological - out of sight, out of mind. By default coworkers don't see you, only when you say something. In an office a manager will often pass by, and just by noticing someone will have a random thought about him. Like, "this guy has been doing really good recently, he deserves a promotion". I'm saying that you have to work harder to establish the same level of presence. You have to make an active effort you make yourself visible.
- HenryBemis 9y ago
  Great point about career progression. Haven't thought about that, but it just could be due to the mentality on the organsatons I've worked in. I think that this kind of mentality could be fading away, in time, as more and more organisations require (or just accept the fact) that people prefer to work remotely 1-2-3 days per week. That boosts morale (for me) since commuting is a BIG productivity killer especially in cities with populations way over 5M. I guess the biggest challenge is that for some people it is difficult to adjust to working from home because they may lack the to "train" themselves, or lack the space, of have the kids, etc. But "we" (work-from-homers) are winning!!
- ytjohn 9y ago
  There's (unfortunately) a big divide between teams that are mostly office-based, and teams that are mostly remote based. I'm fortunate to have finally landed a job in the latter. When your boss and their boss also work from home, this fades away. But when 5 people come into the office every day, and 2 people work most days from home, those 2 people will miss out on opportunities.
- qrbLPHiKpiux 9y ago
  I think it comes down to it saying, "must be able to work on the fly." Wanting a promotion means putting yourself face first in front of management. Take a trip every so often to HQ.
- philbo 9y ago
  This is purely a personal preference but less visibility is precisely why I prefer to work remotely. I don't want to be visible, I don't want a promotion, I don't want a presence. I just want to crack on with fixing/implementing stuff and touch base with people as the need arises. Working like this makes me happy and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. Everyone is different of course and that's fine, I understand that visibility is important to lots of other people. But for some of us it really isn't, and we do okay without it.
ghubbard 9y ago
That hourglass is really annoying. It does have a hide button, but you have to click the hourglass first, something that years of annoying ads have trained me NOT to do.
bastijn 9y ago
Though the processes like agile promote co-location of teams. I tend to agree. Co-location makes a lot of discussions much more efficient. Everybody in one room still communicates faster than with remote communication tools which break up, break down, or are just harder to follow because you don't see the person(s) (even with cam). Also interruptions are much harder to follow remotely. Next, you don't get the coffee table buzz. You don't get insight in your trouble by these random meet ups with people which you don't work with daily but you still share your work with. Quite often they happen to know someone who did the same already (especially in enterprises) or can help you out. Yes, you can have too many meetings but working from home is not the only solution to fix that problem. Also, why is the part on how a home office should look like in the picture. Everybody should make their own work environment but it must be tidy? What kind of freedom is that?
- rimliu 9y ago
  Maybe some want to have some work done instead of endless discussions and coffee table buzz? Remote tools work very well, and what's more: you have logs, even you were not present at the time. You get a nice async mode without falling out of the loop.
  - bastijn 9y ago
    The time logs were an accurate capture of what was spoken of are virtually nonexistent. Sure, it captures whatever the writer thought important but it also didn't capture all the little side talks which will save you two weeks later when you remember a person mentioning it. As I said, you can also simply decline the meetings you know. Just go to the ones that have an agenda that suits you. If there is no agenda, don't go. If you work from home to escape meetings it is definitely not worth it. I'm convinced remote meetings are a downside of the remote working, not one of its pros. It has pros, like no commute. But when the commute is only 15-20 minutes I'd say it pays off to have your workers in one spot. Just don't set any expected hours. If a person wants to leave at 2pm don't ask questions. He obviously has something to do. Groceries, doctors appointment, exercise, having a beer in the garden; it shouldn't matter.
smikhanov 9y ago
Ultimate guide, sure as hell. Only that it boils down to “use Trello and our own time management tool”. Not sure why this ended up on the frontpage.
bradknowles 9y ago
So, why is the one big thing I noticed about this info graphic is the mis-spelling of "wether"?
expertentipp 9y ago
Remote working is another buzzword loosely and sometimes cynically interpreted by corporations. Case from real life - the person in particular location (outsourcing center) is the only member of the team which is located entirely in a different location. The person has to be daily in the office and communicate with the remote team. A "remote work" but... from the office!

60 points by nuriaion 9y ago

What the article doesn't mention is remote workers are less often promoted. It's psychological - out of sight, out of mind. By default coworkers don't see you, only when you say something. In an office a manager will often pass by, and just by noticing someone will have a random thought about him. Like, "this guy has been doing really good recently, he deserves a promotion". I'm saying that you have to work harder to establish the same level of presence. You have to make an active effort you make yourself visible.

HenryBemis 9y ago
Great point about career progression. Haven't thought about that, but it just could be due to the mentality on the organsatons I've worked in. I think that this kind of mentality could be fading away, in time, as more and more organisations require (or just accept the fact) that people prefer to work remotely 1-2-3 days per week. That boosts morale (for me) since commuting is a BIG productivity killer especially in cities with populations way over 5M. I guess the biggest challenge is that for some people it is difficult to adjust to working from home because they may lack the to "train" themselves, or lack the space, of have the kids, etc. But "we" (work-from-homers) are winning!!
ytjohn 9y ago
There's (unfortunately) a big divide between teams that are mostly office-based, and teams that are mostly remote based. I'm fortunate to have finally landed a job in the latter. When your boss and their boss also work from home, this fades away. But when 5 people come into the office every day, and 2 people work most days from home, those 2 people will miss out on opportunities.
qrbLPHiKpiux 9y ago
I think it comes down to it saying, "must be able to work on the fly." Wanting a promotion means putting yourself face first in front of management. Take a trip every so often to HQ.
philbo 9y ago
This is purely a personal preference but less visibility is precisely why I prefer to work remotely. I don't want to be visible, I don't want a promotion, I don't want a presence. I just want to crack on with fixing/implementing stuff and touch base with people as the need arises. Working like this makes me happy and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. Everyone is different of course and that's fine, I understand that visibility is important to lots of other people. But for some of us it really isn't, and we do okay without it.

ghubbard 9y ago

That hourglass is really annoying. It does have a hide button, but you have to click the hourglass first, something that years of annoying ads have trained me NOT to do.

bastijn 9y ago

Though the processes like agile promote co-location of teams. I tend to agree. Co-location makes a lot of discussions much more efficient. Everybody in one room still communicates faster than with remote communication tools which break up, break down, or are just harder to follow because you don't see the person(s) (even with cam). Also interruptions are much harder to follow remotely. Next, you don't get the coffee table buzz. You don't get insight in your trouble by these random meet ups with people which you don't work with daily but you still share your work with. Quite often they happen to know someone who did the same already (especially in enterprises) or can help you out. Yes, you can have too many meetings but working from home is not the only solution to fix that problem. Also, why is the part on how a home office should look like in the picture. Everybody should make their own work environment but it must be tidy? What kind of freedom is that?

rimliu 9y ago
Maybe some want to have some work done instead of endless discussions and coffee table buzz? Remote tools work very well, and what's more: you have logs, even you were not present at the time. You get a nice async mode without falling out of the loop.
- bastijn 9y ago
  The time logs were an accurate capture of what was spoken of are virtually nonexistent. Sure, it captures whatever the writer thought important but it also didn't capture all the little side talks which will save you two weeks later when you remember a person mentioning it. As I said, you can also simply decline the meetings you know. Just go to the ones that have an agenda that suits you. If there is no agenda, don't go. If you work from home to escape meetings it is definitely not worth it. I'm convinced remote meetings are a downside of the remote working, not one of its pros. It has pros, like no commute. But when the commute is only 15-20 minutes I'd say it pays off to have your workers in one spot. Just don't set any expected hours. If a person wants to leave at 2pm don't ask questions. He obviously has something to do. Groceries, doctors appointment, exercise, having a beer in the garden; it shouldn't matter.

smikhanov 9y ago

Ultimate guide, sure as hell. Only that it boils down to “use Trello and our own time management tool”. Not sure why this ended up on the frontpage.

bradknowles 9y ago

So, why is the one big thing I noticed about this info graphic is the mis-spelling of "wether"?

expertentipp 9y ago

Remote working is another buzzword loosely and sometimes cynically interpreted by corporations. Case from real life - the person in particular location (outsourcing center) is the only member of the team which is located entirely in a different location. The person has to be daily in the office and communicate with the remote team. A "remote work" but... from the office!